relocating the rear spring hangers?

[Fugly]

Checked the archives and still have a couple of questions. I am planning on moving my rear spring hangers back about 4-5 inches. Those of you that have done this, did you reuse yours or buy new ones. I have access to new ones but they are 3 inches wide at the bolt hole instead of 2.5 like the early bronco ones.
My other question is if you reused yours what did you do to make the front one long enough to reweld on the frame. It looks like if I move it back, and keep the same height compared to its original location then I will only be able to weld about half of it on the frame. I have 3.5" national leafs.
Any help is appreciated
Thanks

 

[crawln68]

I just carefully cut the stock hangers off and reused them. I had the frame on stands and hung a plumb bob to the floor and made a mark on the floor of the stock location. Then after cutting thme off, I hung the plumb bob again but 4 inches back to ensure that I got them back exactly straight. I didn't want to be crab walking down the street. I also made sure that I re-welded them back on at the same angle that they were originally. I put an angle finder on the front edge, rear edge and on the top.

 

[Fugly]

thats cool thanks. How did you support that front bracket? Didn't it only go half way up on the frame?

 

[crawln68]

thats cool thanks. How did you support that front bracket? Didn't it only go half way up on the frame?

I'm not sure what you mean by this?? Do you have a picture? I put mine back on the same way it came off. I just slid it down the frame 4 inches.

 

[SaddleUp]

In addition to moving mine back I actually raised them up higher on the frame than they were originally. Since I have a shackle flip in the back it allows me to adjust the rearend height simply by changing the shackle length and a longer shackle helps with flex. I did have to adjust the spring perch angle on the axle to accomodate the change as well. Here is a picture of mine partially completed. At this point I had moved the outside of the mount back and then I drove it that way for a few days to make sure there wouldn't be any issues before I moved the inside portion. The holes that the big rivets go in on the outside portion are centered on the lower edge of the frame which moved them up 1 1/2" or so.

 

[psbronco]

Front hanger

I was in the same dilemma sliding my front hanger backwards. The frame has a slight upward bend to it so the bottom plate of the front hanger didn't sit against the frame. What I did was to keep the bolt hole the same distance from the ground and tack it in place. Heres a pic of what it looked like. There was about a 1/4" gap. I was going to slip a piece of steel in the gap and weld it, but after mounting the axle with everything tacked I went ahead and slide the front hanger all the way up to the frame to tilt my pinion up a bit. The second pic is what I ended up with.
psbronco

 

[76Broncofromhell]

My question is: why? Why would you move it back if you are going to do a shackle flip? Get a longer leaf with your desired center pin length.

Here's a link for leaf springs: http://www.4x4spot.com/misc__spring_information.htm

 

[Projp]

Moved mine back 7" and rewelded them in the same position in relation to the frame as they were originally were. No noticeable problems.

 

[SaddleUp]

My question is: why? Why would you move it back if you are going to do a shackle flip? Get a longer leaf with your desired center pin length.

Here's a link for leaf springs: http://www.4x4spot.com/misc__spring_information.htm

There are a number of reasons some of us would prefer to go a different route. 1st. is that using the springs a person already has means they don't need to dig around in a junk yard for a different set of springs. 2nd. is that stock springs out of another vehicle probably will not provide much extra if any flex. Especially if they are compared to a soft aftermarket EB spring. 3rd. is that longer springs will usually mean that the spring is longer at both ends so it may stick out further in back making it more likely to decrease the departure angle which is one of the advantages of moving the axle back in the first place. The last one I can think of right now is that longer springs may not control axle wrap as well. That isn't necessarily to say that it is a bad option as I know there are arguments that can be made against all of these but rather that it is not the only option. I.E. The option you chose apparently works great for you, mine works great for me, and others manage to make theirs work great using entirely different options.